Hurricane Matthew sends Caribbean-bound cruise to Maritimes instead

HALIFAX - Hurricane Matthew has forced a Disney cruise ship scheduled for a southern jaunt to divert to Atlantic Canada.

The Disney Magic was to leave New York City Friday for the Bahamas and Florida, but is now heading to the Nova Scotia ports of Sydney and Halifax as well as Saint John, N.B.

The ship, with a passenger capacity of 2,700, arrives Tuesday in Halifax, along with three other previously scheduled ships.

"With that addition to the schedule, we're expecting over 10,000 cruise guests on that day, and that will be the busiest passenger day of the year," Port of Halifax spokesman Lane Farguson said Friday. "That's a bit of an unexpected bonus for us, because we weren't expecting that Disney vessel in."

On Friday, Halifax hosted five cruise ships, the most it has had all year, carrying a total of about 7,500 people and capping a busy week.

"This week, we welcomed somewhere in the neighbourhood of about 30,000 cruise guests," said Farguson.